Cinco de Mayo

Why do
Americans celebrate and Mexicans barely notice?

by Borgna Brunner

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"I couldn't
get over how it was a big holiday on one side of the border, the
American side."— a Mexican student studying in El
Paso

Looking for a reason to celebrate? Break
out a bottle of tequila, or at least a
bag of tortilla chips—it's time for Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of
May). Although it is often referred to as Mexico's Independence
Day, Cinco de Mayo actually marks the 1862 battle in Puebla when a
small, outnumbered Mexican army defeated the French, a turning point in
Mexico's struggle for independence.

Just Another Gringo Holiday . . .

Not to put a damper on
the festivities, but Cinco de Mayo is a holiday that is in fact more beloved
by Americans than Mexicans. "I couldn't get over how it was a big holiday on
one side of the border, the American side," commented a mystified Mexican
student studying in El Paso.

One American traveler, after spending
a lackluster Cinco de Mayo in central Mexico, learned from a shopkeeper that
it was just "a gringo holiday made to sell Mexican
beer to Americans."

And We
Thought We Were So Cosmopolitan

Why is the holiday
a subdued event in its country of origin, while Americans are donning
sombreros? One theory is that Cinco de Mayo, first brought to the U.S. by
Mexican immigrants during the 1920s, grew in importance when the 1960s
Chicano movement adopted the holiday as an avenue for generating ethnic
pride.

Its political purpose gradually diminished, thereby opening
the holiday up to a wider Mexican-American population, and finally to
mainstream America via advertising. Beer and
cigarette companies manufactured rowdy Cinco de Mayo fetes that invite
comparison to what is referred to as . . .

The St. Patrick's Day Phenomenon

Ironically, for almost its
entire history St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated with far greater fanfare in Boston or New York than it
was in Galway or Dublin. In Ireland, St. Patrick's feast day was a time to
attend church and celebrate in low-key manner—green beer and "Kiss me,
I'm Irish buttons" were strictly made in America. Struck by the strange
paradox that parts of the world (the U.S., Canada, and Australia) were
making a bigger hoopla out of St. Patrick Day than the Emerald Isle
itself—the Irish began a national campaign in the last decade to
transform St. Patrick's Day into an authentic Irish celebration.

Sombreros and Shamrocks

On a lighter and more charitable
note—one in keeping with the spirit of our earlier festive
mood—we could always conclude that Americans are simply more advanced
than other nations when it comes to the art of the holiday.

With
our sombreros and shamrocks, Americans may rightly be accused of mawkish
excess, but no one can say we don't know how to have fun.